Biodiversity

• Biodiversity is the complexity of a biological community (the variety of living organisms in the area), and it exists at many different levels and can be measured using species richness.
• What is biodiversity?

  The variety of living organisms in a biological community
• How can biodiversity be measured?

  Using species richness
• What are habitats?


  An area where an organism lives
• Biodiversity exists in habitats at a range of sizes
• Biodiversity can be considered in a small, local habitat such as lakes or large, global habitats such as coral reefs
• Global habitats have a higher amount of biodiversity than lakes
• Biodiversity varies around the world, for example, the equator is typically more biodiverse than the pole as it is warmer, promoting enzyme activity and is more stable.
• Why is the equator more biodiverse than the poles?

  The equator is warmer, promoting enzyme activity and more stable
• Local biodiversity is the variation between habitats and global biodiversity is the variation between different parts of the world
• What is local biodiversity?

  The variation between habitats
• What is global biodiversity?

  The variation between different parts of the world
• A stable community is one where all the species and environmental factors are in balance so that population sizes remain fairly constant.
• What is a stable community?


  All species and environmental factors are in balance
• How does a stable community affect the population?

  The population sizes will remain fairly constant
• Stable communities are important as they support a large number of species, and is a stable community is lost, it can take 100s of years to replace it.
• An unstable community is one where there is an imbalance between populations or environmental conditions which causes changes in numbers over time.
• Why are stable communities important?

  The population sizes remain fairly constant and support a large number of species
• It is important to maintain biodiversity as it allows a balanced or stable ecosystem, in which many organisms can rely on one another, they are interconnected.
• Why is it important to maintain biodiversity?

  Allows a balanced and stable ecosystem in which many organisms can rely on one another
• What is it called when organisms rely on one another?

  Interdependence
• Ecosystems are the communities of organisms interactive with their habitat, such as seashores, coral reefs and forests.
• What are ecosystems?


  Communities of organisms that interact with their habitat
• What are some examples of ecosystems?

  Coral reefs and forests
• Habitats are the non-living (abiotic) parts of an ecosystem and communities are the living (biotic) parts of an ecosystem
• What are habitats?

  The non-living (abiotic) parts of an ecosystem
• What are communities?


  The living (biotic) parts of an ecosystem
• Species richness is the number of species in a habitat or community, this can be measured by counting the number of different species in the habitat.
• What is species richness?


  The number of species in a habitat or community
• How can species richness be measured?

  Counting the number of different species in the habitat
• How can biodiversity be measured?


  Using the index of diversity
• What is used to measure index of diversity?

  The number of species in a community (species richness) and the number of individuals in each species (species abundance)
• What is species abundance?


  The number of individuals in each species
• What is this calculation used for?


  Calculating index diversity

  
• What does the N stand for in the index diversity calculation?

  The total number of organisms of all species present
• What does the n stand for in the index diversity calculation?

  The total number of organisms of one given species present
• What are the benefits of using the index of diversity?

  Instead of just species richness that, it takes into account the population sizes of different species in one community
• The greater the value for the index of diversity?

  The more diverse the community
• Species richness index does not take into account the population size, this means that a habitat may appear healthy and diverse, but actually contain very few of each species and therefore needs conservation.
• What is not considered in the species richness index?

  • Population size
  • Distribution of species